Creating a Critical Mass in the Textile Sustainability Movement Series – With Peter Majeranowski of Circ
Our journey into the world of textile sustainability takes an exciting turn with insights from Peter Majeranowski, the President and Co-founder of Circ (formerly Tyton BioSciences). With 22 years of diverse experience in technology, finance, and business development, Peter has been at the forefront of advancing sustainability in the fashion industry.
At Circ, Peter leads the charge in transforming global textile waste into new-again, high-quality clothing. His team of scientists and business innovators are tackling some of the toughest challenges in textile recycling, making significant strides toward a truly circular fashion ecosystem.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Peter about his work and vision. His perspective as a tech-savvy innovator in sustainability was both enlightening and inspiring. Join us as we dive into our conversation and explore how Circ is pioneering change in the textile industry.
On the Biggest Challenges Facing the Textile Industry in Pursuit of Sustainability
When it comes to sustainability, the textile industry faces a unique set of challenges. One of the biggest hurdles is the fragmented nature of the industry.
“Unlike other sectors where a few major players dominate, the textile industry is made up of a broad array of brands. This diversity makes it risky for any single brand to take the lead in sustainability initiatives.”
Peter highlighted that while there is a lot of interest in, demand and frankly need for sustainability, there’s also a significant amount of conservatism. Most brands prefer to follow rather than be the first to make bold moves. This hesitation means that regulations will play a crucial role in driving change.
Currently, brands are starting to respond to the demands of younger generations who see sustainability as a non-negotiable. They’re also reacting to existing regulations. Meanwhile, innovators in the industry are scaling up their efforts, and the financial sector has funds ready for investment. However, there’s a missing piece: long-term commitment from brands.
Peter explained that brands love the flexibility of seasonality and are wary of being locked into long-term agreements. While the investment community thinks in terms of 20-year horizons and would love to see 7- or 10-year purchase agreements, brands typically commit to only three to five years at most.
This mismatch creates a challenge. The current investment system is geared towards long-term commitments, so it’s going to take creative thinking at the board and C-suite levels to make those 10-year agreements a reality. Without such commitments, sustainability will evolve slowly and more organically.
This could create a real opportunity for suppliers who can react and implement changes on behalf of their brand customers, but many will require more financial support to do so. He expects to see more supply chain partners stepping in to sign offtakes as a way to get a competitive advantage by securing access to materials that will be in high demand but short supply in the medium term.
On the Financial Community and the Textile Industry
As an innovator, Peter considers the financial community his primary customer. He’s been attuned to their concerns, but ultimately, it’s the views of the brands in the textile industry that drive financial returns. Peter has been trying to bridge the gap between what the financial community wants and what brands are willing to commit to.
“They have an acute problem that needs to be solved and all the pieces are lined up to solve it – including the money. We just need these long-term purchase agreements to get the ball rolling,” Peter explained.
The conversation then turned to the idea of a potential wave of increased investment , which Peter believes is inevitable. The climate crisis is a global issue that affects everyone, making sustainability and circularity essential. “I don’t see a CEO, especially of a publicly traded company, saying, ‘We’re going to cut sales by 50% because it’s good for the planet.’ We also have to find a way to account for the additional 900 million people expected on the planet by 2030 and the rising number of people moving out of poverty,” Peter noted.
So sustainability innovation and circularity are the only ways forward. Peter emphasized that this transition will either be managed through reliance on potentially painful regulations or through more coordinated efforts. Given the fragmented nature of the industry, regulations might be the necessary path to drive meaningful change.
On The Problem of Relying on Regulations
Relying on regulations to drive sustainability in the textile industry comes with significant challenges. Regulators, while well-meaning, often lack the deep industry expertise needed to create effective solutions. Peter pointed out, “Regulators are often required to be jacks of all trades, masters of none. They know a little bit about a lot of things, but it’s hard for them to be industry experts.” This can lead to unrealistic expectations and solutions that don’t fit well with industry realities, resulting in a back-and-forth struggle.
Waiting for regulations can also mean missing critical opportunities for timely action. As Stephen Lamar, the CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association famously put it:
“You can choose to be at the dinner table, you can choose to be the dinner on the table, or you can choose to set the table.”
For the textile industry, setting the table means proactively working with regulators to establish common goals, rather than passively waiting for regulations to be imposed. Making sure that innovators’ voices are heard and not just the established players is also vitally important.
Peter highlighted the example of Renewcell, a Swedish innovator in cotton recycling, which has faced difficulties in getting brands to buy in, partly due to the tough market conditions of the past two years. “If you don’t step up and support new innovation, if you’re not willing to pay premiums—even small premiums—in the early stages, then regulators will come with their swords and create a very uncomfortable situation,” he warned.
Europe’s upcoming ban on textile landfills by 2025 underscores the urgency. “Where is all that waste going to go? We need solutions like ours to scale up, and even with our first few factories, we won’t be able to manage all the waste,” Peter explained. This highlights the risk of regulations outpacing the industry’s ability to provide practical solutions.
On the Core Circ Technology and How It’s Different From Other Recycling Technologies
Circ’s standout innovation lies in its ability to recycle blended fabrics, specifically poly-cotton blends, which are the most common type of fabric today. These blends are a big reason why a $10 T-shirt has stayed at that price for the last 30 years. By blending the more expensive cotton with polyester, manufacturers benefit from cost savings as well as enhanced performance features like shape retention, moisture-wicking, and color durability.
The challenge with poly-cotton blends is that they combine plastic (polyester) with a natural fiber (cotton), making it difficult to separate and recover each component without causing damage. However, Circ has developed a process to do just that.
Peter explained, “We break down the polyester into its building blocks—the monomers traditionally sourced from the oil and gas industry to make polyester plastic. When we depolymerize or break down the polyester, we liquify it. This process yields a liquid stream containing the polyester building blocks, dyes, and other finishing chemicals, and a solid stream containing the cotton.”
From the liquid stream, Circ can extract and purify the monomer building blocks of polyester and re-polymerize them into virgin PET, which is in high demand for recycled polyester. Traditionally, recycled polyester has come from post-consumer bottles, but regulatory pressures are shifting this landscape. For instance, California mandates that 15% of PET in bottles be recycled, with this figure set to rise to 50% by 2030. Europe has similar targets at 25%.
These regulations are driving an increase in bottle-to-bottle recycling plants, which reduces the availability of recycled polyester for other industries, including textiles. Circ’s technology offers a critical alternative source of recycled polyester by addressing textile waste directly.
“If you think about it, bottle-to-textile recycling just delays the inevitable trip to the landfill by another two years. Globally, less than 1% of textiles get recycled back into textiles.”
Currently, Circ operates at an intermediate level with a pilot facility and is in the process of building its first large-scale industrial facility, with plans for locations in Europe and Asia. Asia’s proximity to manufacturing centers is advantageous for recycling both post-industrial waste and used apparel.
On How CIRC Became CIRC – Energy Company to Textile Recycling
Circ’s journey began not as a textile recycling company, but as a biofuel venture. The founding story is a testament to adaptability and vision. Circ jokingly refers to itself not as a startup, but as a “restart,” having pivoted to textiles in 2018/19.
Peter’s inspiration stemmed from his time in the Navy, where he boarded ships smuggling oil out of Iraq. “I had a lot of time on crappy ships to think about the geopolitics of oil and how it gives bad players outsized leverage. We see it today in Europe with oil and gas being used as a weapon,” Peter recounted. This experience ignited his desire to democratize energy.
After his Navy service, Peter worked in an investment group until the recession hit, prompting him to seek something more impactful than transactional work. He ended up helping a friend with a venture focused on converting non-smoking tobacco into biofuel. The main challenge was developing a process to break down the tobacco into oils and sugars. This process became the foundation for Circ’s current technology.
Together with his co-founder, a PhD in chemical engineering, and experts in sub-critical water technology, they refined this process. Always aiming to create something with a positive environmental impact, they pursued biofuels until the market shifted. “In 2016, during what was called the ‘death of clean tech 1.0,’ investors lost interest in biofuels,” Peter explained. This prompted them to explore other possibilities, including agricultural waste and packaging recycling.
The pivotal moment came by chance when someone asked them to try recycling a T-shirt—and it worked. They joined Fashion For Good and soon started receiving cold calls from major brands interested in circular materials. This solidified their focus on textile recycling. Patagonia became one of their first investors, leading a Series A round in 2019, and Circ has since secured multiple rounds of investment.
An investment that Circ has used to scale from lab to pilot operations that they have been running for three years as they prepare to build their first full-scale facility.
On the Eye-Opening Experience of Textile Impact on the Environment
Peter shared that Circ’s initial exposure to the textile industry was a real eye-opener. It all began when someone asked them to try recycling a T-shirt. “We joke about it now,” Peter said. “At first, we asked ourselves, ‘Is this even a thing? Does anyone even care about this?'”
Their curiosity led them to delve deeper, and they were soon faced with staggering statistics about the environmental impact of textiles, highlighted in reports like the one from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Initially, like many people, they had no idea about the scale of the problem. While there’s a general awareness that fast fashion is wasteful, the real impact often goes unrecognized.
“Once you start looking at the details, you realize just how impactful it is,” Peter noted. The greenhouse gas emissions from the textile industry are significant, and the water pollution from dyeing processes is severe. Additionally, the farming of textiles is one of the largest employers of women worldwide, many of whom are paid below living wages.
Peter drew parallels to the food industry, where people have lost touch with how products are made, who makes them, and where they come from. This detachment continues until a catastrophe, like the factory roof collapse in Bangladesh, forces people to take notice. He also mentioned a recent BBC piece showing open kilns burning manufacturing waste, plastics, and clothing to make bricks, with heartbreaking images of children covered in ash. “It’s terrible, but that is the cost of clothing,” he reflected.
For Peter, this realization has transformed into a purpose. “This has made it a life mission for me and for Circ to protect the planet from the cost of clothing. It’s a very important one. I’m excited to be a part of it, even on tough days when it’s very hard to move such an old and entrenched industry,” he emphasized.
On the Role of Consumers in Helping Accelerate Sustainability in Textiles
Our conversation circled back to the consumer and the challenge of clothing 8 billion people, soon to be 9 billion. As more people rise out of poverty, they inevitably become consumers, often of fast fashion. Peter discussed how social media accelerates consumption. “You see an outfit on Instagram, it looks great, and you gotta have it. The discussion starts, and it drives desire. It’s become gamified, with next-day delivery adding to the rush. This is where the seven wears and throw away culture comes from,” he explained.
Peter acknowledges efforts to promote buying less, but admits it’s tough. “Patagonia has a great video showing how we’ve evolved to be extremely wasteful. They advocate for higher quality items that we never throw away, and I totally agree. But it’s hard to fight against human psychology,” he said, emphasizing the need for the right regulations to support these changes. Even thrift stores trigger the same excitement as fast fashion, offering something ‘new’ at a good deal.
Peter approaches the issue with empathy. “When we talk to people at brands, they want to delight people. Clothing is very personal—it shows values. A runner wearing a Patagonia shirt is displaying their values. Designers often get depressed when they understand the industry’s impact on labor and the environment. We come to them with empathy and solutions,” he shared.
Consumers also need empathy as they navigate these challenges. “We’re working against psychology, marketing, and social constructs. If we didn’t have consumption, we wouldn’t have a problem. It’s very addictive. We have to educate as much as we can. It would be great for consumers to take a moment to understand how and where their clothes are made, similar to food ingredients, and recognize brands that are trying to change. This won’t happen overnight, and that’s okay, but the goal is to reward those brands making a positive impact,” Peter emphasized.
He joked:
“Brands are marketing and retail companies that happen to sell clothing, and their marketing data guides them to make these commitments to sustainability. They know their customers want it and expect it.”
On the Vision for the Future: How Will the World Look If We Succeed
Peter envisions a future brimming with innovation and sustainability. “A lot of cool things are going to happen,” he said.
“As we move towards renewables, energy will get cheaper and cheaper—think about the sun providing nearly free energy. We can use that energy to circulate the same molecules, allowing us to wear the same molecules for life.”
Technology will play a pivotal role in reducing overproduction. The current state of the apparel industry, with its vast array of colors, styles, and sizes, results in massive waste. “Technology will solve that,” Peter explained. “We’ll have custom on-demand production that scans your body and makes things perfect just for you. There will be more localized manufacturing.”
New materials will also be designed with their end-of-use in mind. “A lot of materials were invented for functional reasons but without considering what to do with them at the end of their life. This will change,” he emphasized.
Peter is excited about the potential for innovation across the board. “We need to create the right alignment in the industry to make it move faster. I’m hopeful and excited that these changes will happen sooner rather than later,” he concluded.